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Thursday, August 25, 2005 |
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Cellular Power Plants Also Fend Off Viruses Researchers have discovered that mitochondria, the power plants present in every living cell, contain a protein that triggers the immune system to attack viral invaders. The the new role makes perfect biological and evolutionary sense because it fits well with the role of mitochondria as executioners of a biochemical cascade that causes programmed cell death, or apoptosis. Research published in the August 26, 2005, issue of Cell.
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